HAITI: Haiti will reopen some of the country's schools Monday for the first time since the Jan. 12 earthquake, but few are in the capital or other hard-hit areas. No one knows how long children in those places will go without schooling. Many schools might not open until the fall, said Pierre Michel Laguerre, director general of Haiti's Education Ministry. But with an untold number of children having lost one or both parents, and almost all needing a distraction from the horrors they have witnessed, resuming school has become an urgent priority. "It gives those traumatized children the feeling that life is back," said Elisabeth Byrs, a United Nations spokeswoman, "and it helps."
There also is a longer-range imperative. "Haiti can't have a future without educated children," said Mr. Laguerre. "But there has been so much destruction, it's a big and unprecedented challenge for us."

The education ministry and the U.N. plan to begin assessing the state of schools in Port-au-Prince, as well hard-hit areas south and west of the city, and areas now home to large numbers of people displaced from the city, according Ms. Byrs. As many as 8,000 schools that served 1.8 million children have been destroyed or damaged in the Port-au-Prince area alone, according to the U.N. Mr. Laguerre said all of the schools on the western side of the city were totally destroyed, while 40 percent in the south were severely damaged. A preliminary U.N. estimate calls for at least 4,000 temporary classrooms.

The school buildings themselves also hold traumatic memories. Many schools were in the second half of split sessions when the earthquake hit, and many surviving children escaped buildings as they crumbled or collapsed. Thousands more were trapped and killed in the buildings. In the outdoor camps, where hundreds of thousands of homeless Haitians are living, the education ministry is considering setting up makeshift schools in tents. It's also considering running schools out of vans for areas where buildings were destroyed or rendered unsafe. Schools will also need furniture, books, uniforms, and other supplies, Mr. Laguerre said, as well as trauma counseling for the students.

CALIFORNIA: As the building industry has slowed over the past three years, north state schools have watched another source of money dry up. Cash from developer fees, which schools use to repair buildings and buy portable classrooms, has steeply declined as the construction industry suffers through its worst recession in decades. The Redding School District has watched revenue from fees decline from about $536,000 in 2006-2007 to about $250,000 in 2008-2009. Halfway through the 2009-2010 school year, the district has taken in only $26,821, said RoseAnn Adams, the district's assistant superintendent of business services. Unless it is a matter of safety or an emergency, the district is not approving work on school facilities, Adams said. "We just aren't going to do projects," Adams said. "We're down to 'is it needed or is it wanted?'"

Other north state school districts report similar trends. The Shasta Union High School District collected $1.3 million in 2005-2006, but that was down to $486,736 in 2008-2009, district Superintendent Jim Cloney said. The decline in fees has forced the district to delay work on planned projects. Half a million dollars' worth of work to improve dining facilities at Enterprise High School, for example, has been put on hold as a result of the drastic drop in developer fees collected, Cloney said. Builders are charged $2.97 a square foot for each new residence and 47 cents a square foot on commercial construction. The Shasta County Office of Education collects the money, and typically 60 percent of fees go to elementary school districts and the remaining 40 percent goes to high school districts.

In 2005-2006, the Enterprise Elementary School District in Redding collected $919,646 in developer fees. But in 2008-2009, the district collected only $219,796, said Philip Brown, the district's chief business official. While fee revenue has dropped for Enterprise, Brown said a $34 million school construction bond passed in February 2008 has enabled the district to keep up with repairs and add new buildings. "We're not feeling the pinch of developer fees going down as much," Brown said. Voters in four other Shasta County school districts approved construction bonds in 2008: Cascade Union, $12.4 million; Gateway Unified, $19 million; Happy Valley Union, $3.4 million and Pacheco Union, $11 million. Adams said the drop in developer fee revenue is just part of a bleak financial picture for schools statewide.

NATIONAL: Schools and colleges that use wireless microphones operating on the 700 megahertz (MHz) frequency band have until June 12 to change the radio frequency or buy new equipment, according to a Jan. 15 ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC’s decision is part of a larger government effort to clear the 700 MHz band for use by cell phones, digital TV transmissions, and emergency communications. About 25 percent of the country’s wireless microphones will have to be modified or replaced, according to federal projections.
The ruling affects schools, colleges, sports stadiums, churches, theater groups, musicians, and others who rely on wireless microphones to amplify sound. Some schools and colleges using wireless mics to help their instructors or performers be heard more clearly could end up spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars to replace the banned equipment. Violating the FCC’s order could result in penalties and fines, although the extent of this punishment isn’t yet known. Manufacturers of wireless microphones say many schools are unaware of the frequency change and its potential impact.

The FCC has posted a list of companies and products that will violate its new 700 MHz rules. The product list is lengthy and includes hundreds of model numbers from more than a dozen manufacturers, as well as information about whether these devices can be modified to abide by the new guidelines.

HAITI: Education officials in Haiti hope to reopen some schools by next week, but with thousands of children and teachers dislocated and as many as 8,000 schools reduced to rubble, it remains unclear how many classrooms can be used, or how many students will return.John Henry Telemaque, assistant coordinator for education for the president’s emergency disaster committee, said in an interview on Monday that as many as 90 to 97 percent of the schools in Port-Au-Prince had been destroyed in the earthquake. “The schools were built without anti seismic systems,” he said. “In Haiti most of the our schools were built with heavy cement block to withstand hurricanes.”

Education officials are still assessing how many students died in the earthquake and expect to have tallied the casualties by the end of the week, Mr. Telemaque said. That may be overly optimistic. Schools lie flattened across the city, bodies still inside. And many families have already fled to the countryside, presenting another challenge to officials as they try to piece together student records. Government officials said that as many as 1.8 million children and 5,000 to 8,000 schools were affected by the earthquake. As many as 80 percent of Haiti’s schools are private and are run with very little government oversight, creating further problems for education officials, Mr. Telemaque said. One reason so many of these private schools collapsed, he said, is because as they grew they sometimes added new floors to their buildings, sometimes with haphazard construction.

MASSACHUSETTS: State officials agreed to pay $215 million toward school construction and renovation projects in a dozen communities yesterday, including about $87 million in funding for new high schools in Natick and Tewksbury, which will use existing designs.

Natick and Tewksbury are taking advantage of the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s Model School program, which qualifies communities to receive an additional 5 percent in state reimbursements for school construction costs if the school districts use one of two of the authority’s school designs. The program attempts to streamline the design process for new schools, but critics have said the existing designs do not always work on the sites school districts have for their facilities. In Natick, Superintendent Peter Sanchioni said using one of the Model School designs qualified his school district for an additional $4 million in state funding. The Natick school district will receive a total of $43.1 million in state funding for the $89 million school, as long as voters approve a debt exclusion override to pay the town’s share. Tewksbury will receive $44.2 million in state funding for its new high school.

State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, who chairs the School Building Authority and is running for governor, said the willingness of school districts such as Tewksbury and Natick to use existing designs will enable the districts to move forward quickly and begin their projects when construction costs are down. “This is the time to build, and even though it’s a tough time to ask people to pay higher taxes, everyone seems to understand the value by building now and voting for those overrides now," Cahill said.

NATIONAL: In August 2009, ninth-graders entered the building across the street from the University of Cincinnati and cracked open their digital backpacks. Inside the backpacks, they found an iPod, a digital camcorder, a tripod and microphones. Armed with these high-tech mobile tools, the students split into groups for a multimedia project. At brand new Hughes STEM High School, the days of learning solely by lectures and handouts were history. In this new environment, students would learn concepts of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by using their hands.

Hughes STEM High School was made possible by a partnership between the university and Cincinnati Public Schools, and has emerged at a critical time: Education and government advocates have claimed for decades that a coming shortage of U.S. scientists and engineers will hamper homeland innovation and economic development. This partnership reflects a national trend of collaboration between K-12 and higher education institutions to put more students on track for STEM careers. Through collaboration, schools can connect across district lines, share resources and develop in-depth programs. These programs allow students to learn through hands-on activities, project-based assignments and apprenticeships in the field. With these methods, leaders hope to shatter stereotypes about STEM fields, and prove to students that math and science careers are anything but boring.

SOUTH CAROLINA: A South Carolina county is getting millions in federal funds to replace a crumbling school cited by President Barack Obama in his first address to Congress last year as an example of how the government should help with school construction. On the eve of Obama's first State of the Union address, local officials announced that Dillon County is receiving $39.8 million in recovery act funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The bulk of the money will go toward replacing the dilapidated J.V. Martin Junior High mentioned in Obama's 2009 speech.

Obama, who had visited the school during a 2007 campaign stop, recalled in the speech last February how "the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by." All but $4 million of the federal money the county is receiving is a loan, which the area will pay back using revenue from a 1-cent sales tax levied in 2007, Dillon School District 2 Superintendent Ray Rogers said. Some of the money will be used to refurbish existing facilities and build a new early childhood development center. But about $25 million will go toward building a new J.V. Martin Junior High School.

The school is in a rural swath along Interstate 95 in the state's northeastern corner known as the Corridor of Shame, after a 2005 documentary about conditions in schools there. The school itself is a hodgepodge of buildings; the original part, a former church, dates to 1896, and the latest section was added in 1955. The auditorium, built in 1917, was condemned in 2008 by the state fire marshal. Several presidential candidates visited the crumbling school during the run-up to the 2008 election. Obama first brought national media attention to the students' plight in August 2007, when he winced as a high-pitched train whistle interrupted lessons during his visit. When Obama discussed the school during his first congressional address as president, 14-year-old eighth-grade student Ty'Sheoma Bethea was in the audience as one of his invited guests.

National support for the crumbling school began to pour in. Students got the surprise of their lives in May, when the CEO of a Chicago company donated $250,000 worth of new furniture and fresh paint on the cafeteria's walls. Bethea spoke about the school's struggles. The dress she wore to the president's speech was ensconced in South Carolina's state museum.
With the spotlight trained on their district, officials also began dreaming of what a new facility would look like. Officials in July launched an effort to rebuild the school into a model for success with a two-day conference. Architects and engineers have been doing pro bono work for the district to design a new school. "We've been dreaming a little bit about ... turning it into a prototype of what a 21st century school would look like in a poor, rural community," said State Education Superintendent Jim Rex. "What the USDA money means, we've got the bird in hand. The next phase is the eagle."
Rogers, the local superintendent, says he's ready to take the project full speed ahead. "It's been slow, but the problem is, we didn't know that the economy was going to take the downturn that it has," Rogers said Tuesday. "A lot of people have worked hard. Whatever we can do is going to be great for the kids."

FLORIDA: School officials will borrow $60 million to help replace two of the district's oldest buildings as part of a federal initiative designed to improve school infrastructure. The Charlotte school district was recently approved to participate in Qualified School Construction Bonds, a $25 billion program which allows districts to issue bonds at no interest for building upgrades and reconstruction. Buyers of the bonds get a federal tax credit in lieu of interest. The announcement comes on the heels of repeated attempts by the district to allocate funding for construction at Lemon Bay High School and Meadow Park Elementary -- campuses said to be in need of rebuilding for years. Officials will now have the authority to issue $40 million in bonds to replace Lemon Bay and $20 million for Meadow Park.

KENTUCKY: The Kentucky House voted to create a General Assembly Green Schools Caucus that will support healthy, environmentally-friendly schools statewide. The Green Schools Caucus, created by the passage of House Resolution 24, will encourage the construction of more "green schools" -- energy efficient, water efficient, environmentally-sustainable schools designed to improve learning and save school districts money. Currently there are three green schools under construction in the state: two in Warren County and one in Kenton County.

HR 24 co-sponsors Reps. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, and Jim DeCesare, R-Bowling Green, proposed the creation of the Green Schools Caucus after traveling to Washington, D.C. to learn more about the green school concept. The health and learning benefits soon became clear, Marzian told fellow lawmakers before today’s floor vote.
"Our teachers do such a wonderful job educating our children but, as you know, our buildings and our school buildings sometimes are quite lacking," said Marzian. "There has been data collected that kids who go to green schools have less absences for asthma. They make better grades, they do better in school, and our teachers have better attendance."

DeCesare, who represents part of Warren County, said green school technology is a good investment. "For a one percent investment on the front end of a green school, you get that back ten times," DeCesare said. "Learning is better when you are in a green school." House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins said Kentucky is a leader in green schools construction and renovation, adding "it’s amazing what’s taken place in the area of energy efficiency and conservation."
The three green schools now being built in Western and Northern Kentucky will be among the nation’s first "energy net-zero" public schools, according to HR 24.

NATIONAL: Legislation recently introduced in Congress suggests that traditional tax-credit bonds may be replaced by bonds offering Build America Bond-style direct subsidies to issuers, an Internal Revenue Service attorney said.
The Jobs for Main Street Act of 2010 recently approved by the House that would allow issuers of some tax-credit bonds to receive a direct, BAB-style subsidy from the federal government is worth watching, Polfer said, particularly when viewed alongside bills introduced in the Senate that would prohibit tax-credit stripping for certain tax-credit bonds.

As for when the muni market can expect guidance, Polfer said the IRS plans to complete every item on its priority guidance plan, including stripping guidance, by the end of June. Though the priority guidance plan is supposed to outline what projects the IRS will focus on over the next 12 months, some projects have lingered on the plan for several years. But no more, Polfer said. “The directive was made from above that the guidance plan was going to be leaner and meaner, and truly represent those projects that have a likelihood of being published in the business year,” he said. The priority guidance plan released in November covers IRS work from July 2009 through June 2010.

In addition to tax-credit bond guidance, the plan also included additional guidance on BABs and QSCBs. But the IRS’ next action will be to release additional allocations of QSCBs and QZABs, he said. Calling them an “uber-priority,” Polfer said his shop hopes to release allocations for $11 billion of QSCB authority and $1.4 billion of QZAB authority for 2010 in the very near future.

COLORADO: The Cherry Creek School District broke ground this morning on a $14 million project approved by voters in 2008. Work on the The Institute of Science and Technology at Overland and Prairie - a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education building - is underway and the project is scheduled for completion in August 2011. When finished, the institute, housed in a 58,000-square-foot building, will serve 6th- through 12th-graders, offering them a curriculum in STEM subjects. The institute will also offer introductory programs for kindergarten through 5th-grade students to encourage them to pursue STEM courses when they're eligible to attend.

NATIONAL: Public school systems would get federal cash subsidies instead of tax credits to lure investors to their debt under a plan before Congress, according to the chief tax writer for the House Ways and Means Committee. The change to the Qualified School Construction Bond program, which won House approval in December, has a “very high” chance of passing the Senate, said John Buckley, chief tax counsel for the panel, at a forum today in Washington.
“It is a way of turning what was a niche product into a broad-based product because the investor in the School Construction Bond would be no different than an investor in the Build America Bond,” Buckley said at a conference sponsored by New York University and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

School Construction Bonds and Build America Bonds were both created in the economic stimulus package of February 2009. State and local governments have sold almost $70 billion in taxable Build America issues, whose interest cost is 35 percent subsidized by the federal government. Sales of Qualified School Construction Bonds, which offer tax credits as an incentive instead, totaled $2.6 billion out of a possible $11 billion last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

With the tax credit rate set by the U.S. Treasury, some school districts have had to offer supplemental interest payments of as much as 3 percent to sell the debt, Bloomberg data show. The program was originally intended to provide no- interest loans for local educational building projects. In Build America deals, investors get taxable coupons comparable to or higher than those on corporate issues, and the Treasury reimburses issuers 35 percent of the interest cost. The proceeds from such sales can be used for a broader range of public works that would otherwise be funded by tax-exempt debt, and the amount of issuance isn’t capped as with the school program.
Both Build America and Qualified School Construction authorizations currently run out at the end of this year, unless Congress extends them. The stimulus package authorized $11 billion of qualified school bonds for 2009 and another $11 billion for 2010.

VIRGINIA: Reflecting declining revenue, Chesterfield County schools' much leaner capital plan running through 2015 contains a major shift from building schools to spending most of the funding on long-delayed renovations and maintenance of existing facilities.
"This is the first time in my almost 19 years on the board that this has happened," School Board Vice Chairman Marshall W. Trammell Jr. said.
Most of the $182 million allocated for the 2011-2015 capital-improvement plan approved Jan. 12 will go toward additions to schools, replacement of heating and air-conditioning units, security upgrades and maintenance of facilities. The plan is revised and approved by the School Board every year. "There are a huge number of buildings that are very, very old buildings, and things start to break down," board member Dianne E. Pettitt said.

The shift comes as a result of the county's revenue gap. The plan reflects a $43 million loss in debt capacity, which stifled construction plans for a new elementary school scheduled to open in 2015 and a new high school planned to open in 2016. When that happened, school officials were forced to delay construction of those schools beyond 2015, and they decided to channel most of the remaining money into renovations and maintenance in the revised plan.

HAITI: Of the many things taken from this city by the earthquake, few are as threatening to Haiti's future as the near destruction of a school system viewed across society here as the only path to a better life. Education is as precious as water in Haiti. The ruined capital was filled with parochial and secular schools built on the strict French model, many affordable even to the poorest parents, who struggled to pay a few dollars a week in tuition. Early each morning, legions of children in crisp uniforms marched through the city's trash-strewn streets to study mathematics, civics, science and a variety of languages, a sign of hope that endured through coups, foreign interventions and natural disasters.

Now there are no schools. Education officials here estimate that the quake erased thousands of campuses, and at least 75 percent of those in the capital lie in ruins. A grim census is underway to determine the loss of teachers and staff, hundreds of whom remain unaccounted for in heaps of blackboards, concrete, desks and notebooks that appear on almost every block.
"Without education, we have nothing," said Michel Renau, director of national exams at the Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports, which itself is a rubble pile in the city center. "We've been set back very far. But if we pull ourselves together quickly, we'll go on."

The prevalence of schools here highlights their social importance. Nearly every block has one, with many meeting in multiple sessions into the evening. In the quake's aftermath, the debris-filled sites where they once stood are the places that smell the strongest of death. They were filled with children.

HAITI: A Washington Post article on the hundreds of schools that collapsed when Haiti was rocked by the earthquake puts a fresh focus on the importance of providing a safe environment for learning, particularly in the poorest developing countries. As was explored here following the enormous toll in student (and teacher) deaths from the earthquake in China’s Sichuan province, this doesn’t take high technology or big budgets — simply adherence to well established norms for designing buildings to sway instead of crumble or pancake. (A Haitian school collapsed under its own weight in November 2008, illustrating that basic lapses in building practices are widespread in poor countries.) One option for rural regions is using straw bales. Illustrating a way to use concrete and brick safely, Santiago Pujol, an earthquake engineer at Purdue, provided me with renderings showing how the same mix of materials, configured differently, can result in a far sturdier design.
Of course, the lessons here apply far beyond Haiti, given that tens of millions of children — from Istanbul to Oregon — are studying in schools that are already known to be what some earthquake engineers ruefully call “ rubble in waiting.” [Includes illustrations and links to studies.]

CALIFORNIA: A bill by Senator Loni Hancock (D-Oakland) that opens the door to immediate new school construction jobs passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee on a unanimous vote. "This bill will provide innovative financing to create jobs on "shovel-ready" school construction projects throughout the state," Senator Hancock said. Senate Bill 205 authorizes school districts and charter schools to use $773 million of federal stimulus funds to sell local school bonds without offering interest payments to investors. Instead, investors will be able to claim a valuable federal tax credit when they purchase the bonds. This has never been offered before.
"This bill gets the money out on the street so that people can be put to work," Senator Hancock added. "It´s a win-win situation; we create new jobs by building better schools." The money can be used for construction, repair and rehabilitation of school facilities or for the purchase of land and equipment.

"School districts and charter schools will benefit enormously from these bonds because they won´t need to take on additional debt, "Senator Hancock stated. "It´s important to emphasize that these are federal tax credits that are being offered to investors. There will be no impact whatsoever on the state´s general fund." The funds are formally called Qualified School Construction Bonds and were authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. More than $1.3 billion of the bonds were allocated to California, with $582 million of that amount distributed directly to 11 large school districts by the federal government. The demand for the rest of the funds has been so large that the California Department of Education established a lottery to allocate the money. The Department received more than $3.6 billion in requests for the remaining $773 million of federal funds.

NATIONAL: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pledged Thursday to "use all the tools at our disposal" to reduce high levels of a toxic chemical that continues to permeate the air outside an elementary school in Marietta, Ohio. The chemical, manganese, can affect children in much the same way as lead. Government scientists have concluded that long-term exposure can cause mental disabilities and emotional problems.

The EPA plans to release data that show high levels of manganese outside a cluster of schools in and near Marietta. One air sample — taken Oct. 22, 2009, outside Warren Elementary — shows manganese levels that were 23 times above what the EPA considers safe for long-term exposure. "That is pretty remarkable," said Stephen Lester, science director for the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, a Virginia-based advocacy group that focuses on children and schools.

Two other schools, including Neale Elementary in Vienna, W.Va., just across the Ohio River from Marietta, also appear affected. One reading at Neale was five times higher than what is considered safe for long-term exposure. Breathing high levels of manganese for extended periods can cause "irreversible damage," Lester said. He worried that the readings might represent "just the tip of the iceberg. How many other chemicals are these kids exposed to?" he asked. "It's not just manganese alone that you worry about. It's the combined effect of all these chemicals on the central nervous system."

EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan said the agency plans to investigate the source of the manganese in Marietta. According to data collected by the EPA, several companies in Marietta reported releasing manganese into the air in 2008, the most recent year for which complete records were available. One, Eramet Marietta, reported releasing 240,000 pounds of manganese into the air that year. Marietta has been the subject of air quality studies since 2000. In July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said one of its studies had found elevated levels of manganese and other toxic chemicals in the air at several locations.

The EPA renewed its interest in the area last year, when it launched a $2.25 million program to monitor the air outside 63 schools in 22 states. It included among the 63 schools two in Marietta — Warren Elementary and the Ohio Valley Education Service Center. The EPA's air monitoring program came in response to a USA TODAY investigation that identified hundreds of schools where chemicals appear to saturate the air. Gilfillan said the agency has finished testing the air outside 54 of the 63 schools and expects to issue reports on each school by this fall.

LOUISIANA: The St. Charles Parish School Board approved issuing $10 million in bonds to build wing additions at two schools, which could reconfigure schools throughout the district. Board members unanimously authorized the bond issue shortly after a presentation by Jim Melohn, the school system's finance director. Melohn said the Qualified School Construction Bonds, part of a federal stimulus program, would allow the school district to borrow money at a low interest rate. The $10 million would finance new classroom wings at Harry Hurst and J.B. Martin Middle schools and eventually allow the schools to include the sixth grade. Right now, both middle schools include only seventh and eighth grades. The additions will cost $13.9 million, according to a school district presentation. The bonds will cover $10 million of the project, with the school system financing the rest.

VIRGINIA: The Loudoun County School Board adopted a Capital Improvement Program that calls for more than $450 million in new construction over the next six years while trying to comply with fiscal restraints issued by the Board of Supervisors. Board members debated the plan for more than a month, focusing largely on the need for new schools in the Ashburn area. Last year, both the School Board and Board of Supervisors adopted resolutions identifying the need for a new elementary, middle and high school in the northern Ashburn area, where overcrowding is already a problem and will likely get worse as the student population continues to grow.
The document adopted by the board contains two separate and very different plans: one that board members say represents the true needs of the school system and would require more than $1 billion in funding, and one which complies with the fiscal guidance issued by the supervisors that comes in at $450 million and delays or eliminates the construction of many projects.

NEW YORK: More than one third of Manhattan’s public school buildings have hazardous code violations, including many that have gone unresolved for years, threatening the safety of children and teachers, according to a report by the Manhattan borough president’s office. The report offers a cutting assessment of the New York City Buildings Department, the much-maligned agency responsible for building safety, which has been stung by charges of corruption, mismanagement and inefficiency.
The report was limited to Manhattan, and narrowly focused on the Building Department’s role in enforcing city safety codes. It did not address the possible failings of the building’s landlords, including the Department of Education and the School Construction Authority, in maintaining their properties and correcting deficiencies.

One school building in Harlem had 15 Class 1 or hazardous violations, some dating to May 2006, citing problems from blocked exit doors and poor ventilation to interior structural cracks “causing lateral movement throughout the entire building.” That building, on West 133rd Street, is home to Roberto Clemente Intermediate School as well as the KIPP Infinity Charter School and KIPP S.T.A.R. College Prep Charter School. The building had 26 other open violations that were considered less serious, the study found. Rosarie Jean, the principal of Roberto Clemente, said she had been at the school for a year and had not fielded any complaints about the building.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said her office would review the report. “Our schools are safe,” the spokeswoman, Marge Feinberg, wrote in an e-mail message. “We inspect our buildings and take appropriate action.” In another example, the School of the Future, a charter school on East 22nd Street in the Flatiron district, has 10 open violations, 6 of them serious. One citation noted a six-foot-long crack on a structural concrete beam. Another said an “exterior roof skylight is leaking over the electronic motor for the elevator.” At Frederick Douglass Academy and P.S. 200, which share a building at 148th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard in Harlem, a building inspector noted that “a main structural support has pulled away and separated approximately 2 inches.”

HAITI: In a second-floor classroom at St. Jean L'Evangeliste on Rue Turgeau, a wooden cross hangs above a tilted chalkboard full of words for vocabulary study. Though the room itself appears intact, from the outside it is easy to see that the entire school building is slumped over at an almost 30-degree angle. The top of a red pickup truck that was parked outside the school now peeks from under a monstrous slab of concrete, just visible enough to remind everyone there was a room here. This used to be a primary school for about 1,500 boys, one of the best such schools in Port-au-Prince.
School had ended just under three hours before the earthquake struck last week, so there were few students inside. One teacher and one student have been confirmed dead. A handful of others, like the school's music teacher, are believed to be among the bodies lying underneath the rubble.

Now, as rescue crews are ending their searches for survivors at one of the many collapsed school buildings around this devastated capital city, Port-au-Prince educators are struggling to figure out what to do with thousands — if not hundreds of thousands — of school-aged children who no longer have a school to attend. "Right now, I don't have an answer to that question," says Fr. Bernard Augustin, St. Jean's director since 2004, who himself barely escaped from the school's administration building as it collapsed. "We are all powerless in front of what has happened here."

St. Jean was founded in the mid-1960s by les Friere de (the Brothers of) Sacre Couer, a group of Catholic monks who also established the nearby College Canado, a secondary school where most of the students were St. Jean graduates. With both schools now in ruins, Augustin wonders not only when, but also if they will ever rebuild. Even if administrators could manage to hold classes outside in what used to be the school's courtyard, the debris hanging from the building and the growing stench from the dead bodies trapped below would make learning impossible here. The buildings must be cleared away, Augustin says, but that takes money — the one thing in Port--au-Prince that is as scarce as undamaged school buildings.

TEXAS: The green movement is reaching into public schools. The Irving school district plans to build an energy-efficient eighth middle school that will produce as much energy as it uses. The building model is known as "net zero." Few public schools in the country have opted for similar construction models, though projects are under way to build a similar elementary school in Kentucky and a high school in Los Angeles. Some colleges and universities also have built such facilities. Solar panels and wind turbines will help provide power. Other features would include additional insulation and high-efficiency windows.
Layne hopes that the unusual design will draw visits from other districts and organizations, much as the district's Singley Academy became a showpiece for its design based around career tracks.

The district has about $24.7 million set aside in bond funds for construction of the 150,000-square-foot school. Construction could begin as soon as late March, with the school opening in fall 2011. But the district wants to raise more funds from other sources for the school. The net zero construction adds $3 million to $4 million to the school's costs. Administrators are investigating grants, government stimulus funds or even business sponsorships. In the long term, the school district hopes the building will save money on its energy bill. Layne said the typical annual bill for electricity, gas and water at a middle school is about $250,000, which he hopes would drop to $50,000 with the new school. "It will allow us to only need a minimal amount from our electricity provider," Layne said. The design phase is taking a lot of work since it's a new concept – even for the architects. "We've worked on green technologies and environmentally conscious buildings, but we've never done any that take it quite to this level," said Susan Smith of Corgan Associates, an architectural design firm working with the district.

There are also plans to tie the design to the science curriculum. Hands-on learning activities could take place, including examining topics such as geothermal science. High school students in the construction program could also visit the facility. Teachers are working on writing lesson plans. "What we want is for it to be a learning laboratory for students throughout the district," said Assistant Superintendent Marie Morris.

MICHIGAN: Work will begin this summer on 18 school construction projects, and the advisory committee for the $500.5 million project wants to ensure Detroiters are first in line for the estimated 11,000 jobs expected to be created. There is an ambitious 30-month construction schedule to renovate 10 schools and build eight. The bond program will also upgrade security, technology and roofs. When schools recess in June, renovations will begin immediately on the 10 schools, with five to be completed by the time school reopens in September. Construction on the new schools will also begin in the summer. All buildings are expected to be open by September 2012.

WASHINGTON: Voters would decide whether to launch a statewide package of energy-efficient school makeovers under a bill approved by the state House. The plan, organized by Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, is aimed at spurring specialized construction jobs and capturing electricity savings at public buildings. If approved by the Legislature and endorsed by voters in November, the projects could feed about 38,000 jobs and save taxpayers about $190 million per year in energy costs, Dunshee estimates.

The state would sell about $860 million in bonds to finance the projects with grants. K-12 public schools and public colleges or universities would get the lion's share, although some local governments and other entities could compete. State taxpayers would be on the hook for about $1.5 billion over 20 years to pay off the bonds, including interest. Dunshee characterized the bill as a bold investment that will reward taxpayers with energy savings, improved infrastructure and needed jobs. He also noted that the state's 9.5 percent unemployment rate last month, reported earlier in the day, was the highest in a quarter-century.
The House approved the measure 57-41. It now moves to the Senate. It was the first significant bill approved by either body this session. Republican House members objected to the plan, nicknamed the "Jobs Act," citing its expansion of state debt.

CALIFORNIA: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to cut education by $1.5 billion next year will lean heavily on school districts' funds for campus maintenance and repairs. The governor said he wants districts to cut central administration to avoid hits to the classroom, but a Bee analysis of the funds that Schwarzenegger considers "central administration" shows the largest category is plant maintenance, covering everything from the salaries of electricians and plumbers to buckets of paint and boxes of nails.

School district administrators say cuts to facility maintenance and repairs would be devastating, especially for aging schools. "Most of our schools are over 50 years old," said Trinette Marquis, spokeswoman for the Twin Rivers Unified School District. "Fifty-year-old buildings can fall apart really fast." Education advocates say cutting facilities could reverse progress brought about by the landmark 2004 Williams v. California lawsuit settlement, which set standards for clean, safe schools. "I'm worried that the depth of this budget crisis threatens every aspect of our schools," said Brooks Allen, an ACLU lawyer who helps monitor districts' compliance with the Williams settlement. "Maintenance is vulnerable. It's a place you can cut and not see the effects today, but it can erode the progress that's been made (by the Williams settlement)."

Those who take care of school district buildings say holding off on repairs will cost more money in the long run. The multipurpose room and the gym at Leroy F. Greene Middle School in Sacramento both will have to be shored up or torn down if repairs aren't done in the next two years, said Mike Cannon, facilities supervisor for the Natomas Unified School District. "We were hoping to use maintenance and operations funds," he said. Cannon said the Leroy Greene facility has been damaged by water intrusion and dry rot and will soon be a health and safety hazard. Natomas spent $8.2 million on maintenance and repairs during 2007-2008, which is the last data available. It spent $7 million in the other two funds Schwarzenegger has targeted.
Canon said cuts will be made to more than just supplies. The district will lose people."If we make significant personnel cuts, classrooms won't be cleaned as often, grounds won't be cleaned as often. If lights go out, they won't be changed as often," he said. The Williams lawsuit alleged that students in California's poorest neighborhoods were being denied an equal education because they didn't have the same access to books, properly trained teachers and safe school buildings as students in wealthier areas. The $1 billion settlement established an emergency repair fund that has awarded $343 million to districts since 2004. The account has not been replenished with the more than $400 million it is owed because the Legislature suspended contributions this year due to the budget crisis. The fund has $800 million in applications pending.

NATIONAL: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced an agreement with the City of New York to address the risks posed by PCBs in caulk found in some city schools. The agreement is intended to result in a city-wide approach to assessing and reducing potential exposures to PCBs in caulk in schools.
“The work that the City of New York has agreed to do will go a long way toward helping us better understand the potential risks posed by PCBs in caulk, and our work to reduce the exposure of school children, teachers and others who work in New York City public schools,” said Judith Enck, EPA Regional Administrator. “New York City’s 1,600 public schools make it the largest school system in the nation, and we believe that the program outlined in this agreement, along with general EPA guidance on managing the issue, will serve as a model for school systems across the country.”

The agreement requires the city to conduct a study in five schools to determine the most effective strategies for assessing and reducing potential exposures to PCBs in caulk. The city will then produce a proposed plan for any cleanups needed in the five schools and use this information to develop a recommended city-wide approach. EPA is also requiring the city to develop and submit for approval best management practices for reducing exposure to PCBs in caulk in school buildings. These may include cleaning the schools, improving ventilation, and addressing deteriorating caulk.

Although Congress banned the manufacture and most uses of PCBs in 1976 and they were phased out in 1978, there is evidence that many buildings across the country constructed or renovated from 1950 to 1978 may have PCBs at high levels in the caulk around windows and door frames, between masonry columns and in other masonry building materials. Exposure to these PCBs may occur as a result of their release from the caulk into the air, dust, surrounding surfaces and soil, and through direct contact. In September 2009, EPA provided new guidance to communities and announced additional research to address PCBs that may be found in the caulk in many older buildings, including schools. This agreement complements EPA’s national efforts by helping building owners and managers facing serious PCB problems develop practical approaches to reduce exposures and prioritize the removal of PCB caulk.
The legally binding agreement settles potential violations of the Toxic Substances Control Act by the city for having caulk that contains PCBs above allowable levels in some schools. As part of the study of the five yet to be determined schools, the city will sample extensively in them, and will ensure that any PCB waste is properly removed. Once the study is concluded the city will work with EPA to develop and implement a plan to identify, prioritize, and address the presence of PCBs within the New York City school system. In addition, the agreement calls for the development of a citizens’ participation plan to ensure that school administrators, parents, teachers, students, and members of the public are kept fully informed throughout the process.

PCBs are man-made chemicals that persist in the environment and were widely used in construction materials and electrical products prior to 1978. PCBs can affect the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems and are potentially cancer-causing if they build up in the body over long periods of time. The greatest risks from PCBs involve sustained long-term exposure to high levels of PCBs.

EPA is currently conducting research to better understand the relationship between PCBs in caulk and PCB concentrations in caulk, air and dust. The Agency is doing research to determine the sources and levels of PCBs in buildings in the U.S. and to evaluate different strategies to reduce exposures. The agreement and more information can be found at http://www.epa.gov/region2. To learn more about PCBs in caulk go to http://www.epa.gov/pcbsincaulk.

NEW YORK: This summer, supporters will tear up a quarter-acre of asphalt parking lot behind P.S. 216 in the Gravesend neighborhood and start building the first New York affiliate of the Edible Schoolyard program, developed by the restaurateur Alice Waters of Chez Panisse.
It’s a $1.6-million architect’s dream. A new building, powered by the sun, will hold a kitchen classroom with communal tables where children can share meals they make from food they grow in the garden. Designers from the Work Architecture Company have incorporated a chicken coop, a composting system, an outdoor pizza oven and a cistern to collect rainwater. A movable greenhouse will be rolled out each fall. Teachers will use the garden to give students — 460 children from prekindergarten to the fifth grade — lessons in subjects like art, math, history and science. Administrators hope the school will eventually become a center for the study of the environment and agriculture.

The P.S. 216 project will be not only the most expensive of the six Edible Schoolyards but also the only one to operate year round. The original, built 15 years ago at a middle school in Berkeley, Calif., cost about $75,000, Ms. Waters recalled.

PHILLIPINES: Research studies reveal that children learn better in environments that are conducive to their needs and learning styles. There are kids who have better concentration and focus in softly lighted rooms than in brightly lighted ones, and who achieve better in warm surroundings than in cool environments.
While there are children who are comfortable studying while listening to instrumental music, others respond better to rock music. Even the type of furniture used inside the classroom or at home can affect the effectiveness of learning. Some children can comfortably sit and study for hours on a wooden, plastic, or steel chair, while others can experience discomfort and become restless in such seats, to the point that their restlessness prevents them from effectively learning.

Students learn more and get to like the process of learning better when they are taught in ways that jive with their preferred learning styles. By accurately determining the students’ learning styles, the teacher can capitalize on them for greater learning effectiveness. Other researches have shown that gender has a lot to do with efficient learning. Boys tend to be more hyperactive and restless than girls. Seating arrangements sometimes contribute to this phenomenon. Students who were allowed to learn and/or takes tests in arrangements that responded to their learning style preferences achieved significantly higher test scores.

The increasing number of researches that delve on children’s learning styles and the effect of environment on their learning provide significant information on how to make our classrooms and even homes mere conducive to learning. It would be good if traditional classrooms can be rearranged or redesigned to allow for more elbow room for creative work and play, more quiet, and more softly lit areas, and with sections for controlled interaction. The teacher could perhaps allow students to pick a comfortable corner in the room, that would enable them to pay more attention to the lesson and make them perform better. Encouraging reading under natural daylight has been found o help underachievers learn better and pacify a restless class. What is important when we allow such flexibility, particularly in classroom seating arrangements, is that the ground rules ensure proper behavior and order within the classroom or household and encourage the children to develop the habit of craving for more learning.

UNITED KINGDOM: Most headteachers believe there is a link between the condition and design of school buildings and the level of pupil attainment, according to research carried out for Building. The exclusive survey, commissioned by education conference BSEC and completed by 87 heads of secondary schools, found 78% agreed or strongly agreed that attainment was linked to the school estate, and 93% felt improving school buildings in poor condition had a positive effect on pupils.

Ty Goddard, chief executive of the British Council for School Environments, said: “These findings reflect the reality – that buildings can and do affect how our children learn and our teachers teach. Investment in the school estate is not a luxury, but a key tool in preparing our children for adult life.”

MARYLAND: School construction will move full speed ahead in Montgomery County under a six-year, $3.9 billion capital budget that county executive Isiah Leggett will unveil, officials said. The plan, which increases capital spending for schools by more than 17 percent over the previous six-year plan, shows that Leggett (D) is prioritizing education as budget woes force the county to make difficult decisions about where money is spent. The budget will fund all of the construction projects in the $1.5 billion plan approved by the Board of Education in November; Leggett's budget trims about 1 percent of the total request, county spokesman Patrick Lacefield said. "We're squeezing other projects to give schools more resources." Under the plan, 18 schools will be renovated, 11 will gain additions and a new elementary and middle school will be built in Clarksburg, one of the county's fastest-growing areas.

The new budget, which takes advantage of what county officials said was a 30 percent drop in construction costs in the past two years, puts back on track the modernization of Paint Branch, Gaithersburg and Wheaton high schools and gives the green light for an addition at Clarksburg High. The principals of those schools are planning to stand with Leggett as he introduces his proposal Friday at Paint Branch.

Even with the relatively generous plans for capital improvements, the school system's operating budget, which pays for day-to-day school operations, not construction, still faces a major crunch. And it could worsen, depending on funding decisions made by the Maryland legislature in the coming weeks. Leggett's proposed capital budget must be approved by the County Council.

NATIONAL: Until 1923, the only school in the largely black farm settlement of Pine Grove was the one hand-built by parents, a drafty wooden structure in the churchyard. Anyone who could read and write could serve as teacher. With no desks and paper scarce, teachers used painted wood for a blackboard, and an open fireplace provided flashes of warmth to the lucky students who sat close. This changed after a Chicago philanthropist named Julius Rosenwald, the president of Sears, Roebuck, took up the cause of long-neglected education for blacks at the urging of Booker T. Washington, the proponent of black self-help. By the late 1920s, one in three rural black pupils in 15 states were attending a new school built with seed money, architectural advice and supplies from the Rosenwald Fund.

If the desks and textbooks were hand-me-downs from white schools, at least there were real blackboards and rough paper for writing. If there was still no electricity, columns of windows maximized the natural light. Today, this hard-used wooden building, which narrowly escaped demolition, is one of several dozen Rosenwald schools being restored as landmarks — newly appreciated relics of important chapters in philanthropy and black education. The schools were a turning point, sparking improved, if still unequal, education for much of the South, historians say.

Pine Grove’s school was one of more than 5,000 built for rural blacks throughout the South between 1912 and 1937 with aid from Rosenwald. Spot surveys indicate that no more than 800 remain, their historical importance often unknown to residents and even to many of the dwindling alumni, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which calls the schools an endangered treasure. The need for them reflected the segregation of the age and the paltry financing of black schools. But historians say their blossoming also demonstrated the strong community ties forged by rural blacks and a fierce determination to educate their children despite official indifference.

VIRGINIA: Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced the allocation of $92.1 million in Qualified School Construction Bonds for 133 projects in 23 localities across Virginia. The no-interest bonds, established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, are available to localities for K-12 school energy, renovation, and construction projects. Friday’s announcement is the second allocation from approximately $191 million authorized for Virginia through the QSCB program in 2009. Funds were allocated by Executive Order 110 which lists the specific recipients of the bond proceeds.
“These projects will advance two of the Commonwealth’s top priorities: education and energy efficiency,” says Kaine. “The projects will not only create jobs and lower ongoing costs for localities, they will improve our children’s learning environment and promote green technology to decrease our reliance on traditional energy sources.”

Of the $92.1 million, $53.1 million has been allocated to 120 school energy projects that received the highest competitive scores and had the greatest energy efficiency impact. The average project payback for the projects is 7.7 years and an annual estimated energy savings of $0.43 per square foot. The school projects are in 20 localities. Competitive applications were received from 39 localities for 177 projects costing $222.1 million. Working together, the Department of Education and Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy evaluated each application and scored the projects against criteria that included energy savings, ready-to-go status, project payback, and the composite index. In addition, $39 million in bonds were allocated to six localities with 13 school construction projects on the Board of Education’s First Priority Waiting List.

This is the second time that allocations have been made to help finance projects on the List. “In September, I allocated $71.6 million in QSCB bonds to needed projects on the First Priority Waiting List,” says Kaine. “Because of its success, this low-cost financing alternative is now being extended to new projects added to the List this fiscal year. My decision will help localities in these tough budget times meet the needs of their students and allow scarce resources to remain in the classroom.” The bonds will be sold by the Virginia Public School Authority and will not affect the state’s debt capacity.

OHIO: The superintendent of Port Clinton City Schools announced a pleasant surprise about funding for the construction of new schools. The district is eligible for as much as $15 million in Qualified School Construction Bonds to build new schools. This amount is greater than the $3.2 million guaranteed, and potential $8 million that the district anticipated receiving in November.
"The community supported the issue and now, as we have said before, our community is going to see funds that were allocated to other districts," Superintendent Pat Adkins said. "We're really thrilled that it passed, and now we have this opportunity the $15.1 million is more than we had anticipated receiving." "The additional QSCB funds are a result of the fact that only 13 of the eligible districts that applied for the Federal Stimulus program passed their issues in November," district Treasurer Jeff Dornbusch said. "As a result our district received a portion of the funds that were originally allocated to those other districts."

Extra money could result in reduction in the amount of millage collected over the life of the issue; reduction in the life of the collection; or a combination of both. The effects won't be known until the district sells the bonds in February.

"We are very excited about the tremendous opportunity we have been given by our community and look forward to working with the community in developing state-of-the-art facilities," Adkins said. The planning phase of the project has recently been implemented. The district had an initial meeting with the architectural firm, Fanning & Howey, on Dec. 16, to begin the design of the buildings. Staff and community members will serve on various design committees to be established throughout the process. Groundbreaking ceremonies are anticipated for the fall of 2010 with project completion two years later in 2012.

HAITI: Engineers and architects who have worked in or visited Haiti say that substandard design, inadequate materials and shoddy construction practices likely contributed to the collapse of many buildings in the earthquake that struck.
Most houses and other structures are built of poured concrete or block, there being very little lumber available due to mass deforestation, said Alan Dooley, a Nashville architect. Concrete is very expensive — much of the cement for it comes from the United States, Mr. Dooley said — so some contractors cut corners by adding more sand to the mix. The result is a structurally weaker material that deteriorates rapidly, he said. Steel reinforcing bar is also expensive, he said, so there is a tendency to use less of it with the concrete.

Building codes are limited or nonexistent, so columns and other elements made from concrete are often relatively thin, designed without proper margins of safety. “We would double the design strength, just to give it a factor of safety,” Mr. Dooley said, referring to practices in the United States. “There they’d design it to what it would hold.”
Concrete blocks are often substandard too, said Peter Haas, executive director of Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, a nonprofit organization that is working on several projects in Haiti. Many of them are made in small batches at people’s homes, and the quality can vary.

When builders in Haiti do take disasters into account in their designs, their most recent experience has been with hurricanes, the last major earthquake having occurred two centuries ago. “Newer construction has been developed to withstand hurricanes, not earthquakes,” said John McAslan, a London architect who has studied Haitian buildings, “If you engineer for one you’re not necessarily covering the other.” Mr. Dooley said that his original design for the medical clinic called for a steel roof, but that was changed to a reinforced concrete one to better withstand hurricane-force winds. The building survived the earthquake with apparently little damage, he said. But many other concrete roofs presumably collapsed, adding to the loss of life. Mr. Sinclair said he had seen houses where builders put concrete roofs on top of low-grade blocks. “Then it just pancakes,” he said.

LOUISIANA: Four times voters have shot down propositions to fix the three school facilities in St. Helena. Now the superintendent says the schools barely meet safety codes.
St. Helena Central Elementary looks just like any other school. But in one of the school's many T-buildings, if you walk in, water leaks through the door. Inside, the buzz inside isn't the students. It's from a heater that's been in the classroom since the 50's. Because the heaters don't keep the rooms very warm, some rooms use space heaters. Maintenance workers come in at 4:00 a.m. to make sure the chill is under control. But that problem is just the tip of the iceberg. Cracks in the walls, holes and exposed wires are all around the school. Problems school officials say keep getting patched up. The maintenance department there operates on a $150,000 budget. Out of that money, the salaries for two workers must also be paid.
"These schools are old, they don't pass safety code standards and there needs to be something done," says Superintendent Dr. Daisy Slan. Slan says she closed campuses once, because schools did not have working fire alarms.

OREGON: The old-school method of teaching may soon be history. A new concept for schools being tested in New York City could change the way children are taught, as well as the spaces they are taught in. Architect John Weekes of Dull Olson Weekes Architects recently was selected by the American Architectural Foundation to chair a design process for the School of One, a new education model developed by Joel Rose of the New York City Department of Education. Now, after a successful pilot project using input from a design charrette led by Weekes last summer, the Department of Education this year will expand the School of One program to two more city schools.
Rather than choosing one curriculum for a class, the School of One creates curriculums for each student, based on their individual learning style. Instead of one teacher lecturing at the front of a closed classroom, four or five teachers roam an open learning space where students work alone at laptops, in small groups or in larger lecture spaces, depending on their curriculum for that day. The project was named one of Time magazine’s Top 50 Inventions of 2009.
“What was envisioned is the students would arrive in the morning, and a learning plan would be provided for them with activities to go through during the day,” Weekes said. “As you move through the school, you need space to accommodate all of those activities and the flexibility to change the space during the day for specific needs.”

Architects participating in the charrette departed from traditional school design, which aligns separate classrooms along a double corridor, to create a more open space that would serve the School of One curriculum. Different types of furniture, including comfortable couches and tables and chairs, are used throughout the School of One. Glass and other transparent materials are used in movable partitions so teachers can monitor the students. For a School of One pilot project focusing on mathematics at New York City’s Middle School 131, the school’s library was rearranged to become an open, flexible space with varying sizes of group areas and individual stations separated by movable partitions.

There was a concern that the library’s few acoustic ceiling tiles would not reduce noise. But there was never a problem. “The kids were quiet,” Weekes said. “The noise one might see in a classroom where kids aren’t engaged was substantially less.” Also, students’ assessment scores improved when they were enrolled at the School of One, according to Weekes. In addition, Weekes believes that the School of One concept could lead to greater space efficiency in the design of new schools.
“If you look at the rendering for the School of One, the corridors are used,” Weekes said. “Usually at traditional schools they are empty for most of the day. With the pilot, we were able to add additional educational space without increasing the size of the building. This idea can’t require more resources, and we’re working hard to make it so we require even less space.”

Concepts like the School of One represent a larger movement in school design to move away from traditional classroom models, according to Craig Mason of DLR Group. His firm is currently working on a design for a middle school for Marysville School District in Washington state that will use more flexible learning spaces. “In the past, you’d have a science room, a wood shop and an English classroom,” Mason said. “We’re trying to get away from that and focus on different types of learning. Instead of saying this is a science lab, we’ve come up with a suite of rooms such as a small workshop, a project lab and a studio for different learning activities.”

Portland Public Schools, meanwhile, is looking at how to modernize its school system to improve student performance. Stefee Knudsen, public engagement coordinator for the district’s Office of School Modernization, says it has looked at the School of One concept as one of many case studies, but is not considering it above any other learning method. “I think it’s an interesting concept,” Knudsen said. “We are trying to gather up all sorts of case studies to see how they might inform what we do and how different learning approaches support changes in the architecture of our schools.”

Open classrooms became popular in the 1970s after the success of a few schools, which in some cases were built without any interior walls. But soon, the educational methods that made the open classroom work in the first place were lost, leading to problems such as noise and disruptive learning. “Schools were constructed using open classrooms and they didn’t take the pedagogy with them,” Weekes said. “The schools were doing what was always done but in a new environment, and difficulties emerged.” Weekes notes that the success of the School of One pilot project lies in careful training of teachers, as well as architects, on the methods and philosophies guiding the program, and that the pilot was designed specifically for a mathematics curriculum. Future pilots will create new designs for science and English programs. Construction will begin in February to prepare two existing schools in the Bronx and Brooklyn for School of One pilots. “It’s a complicated process, but it ends up being so simple for the teachers and the kids,” Weekes said.

MASSACHUSETTS: Workers were bundled up tight on the rooftop of R.J. Grey Junior High School in the windy, below-freezing weather, carefully sidestepping ice patches as they plated the roof with solar panels. After five to six weeks of installation, the clean energy solutions company Nexamp expects the 506 panels to be up and running before the end of January, site foreman Pat Kincaid said. The company is currently installing a solar array on top of the high school as well, and plans to work on Douglas Elementary School during the summer.
J.D. Head, the school district’s director of facilities and transportation, said the cost savings will be effective immediately. “When it’s all said and done, the town of Acton will have half a million kilowatt hours of clean energy,” he said, including the town’s plan to install solar panels on the Forest Road highway shed. At the Douglas school, where there is no air conditioning system, the solar panels will be responsible for one-third of the school’s energy. For the other schools it will a smaller percentage, but the solar arrays will save a minimum of $7,000 from the regional school budget in the system’s first year, and $4,000 from the Acton Public School budget, Head said.
The schools are effectively leasing the arrays with a 20-year contract, with an option to extend it to 25 years from Nexamp, which will retain ownership and maintenance of the system while the schools only pay for the energy used. Head said that through this agreement, solar energy costs 8 cents per kilowatt-hour, as opposed to 19 cents for regular electricity.

While regular energy prices are expected to rise, the solar energy rate will remain stable throughout the length of the contract. Projections yield an average savings of $25,000 per year over a 25-year period factoring in the estimated energy cost hikes, Head said.

The solar energy installation is funded through stimulus money from the state called the Commonwealth Solar Program, so the schools pay nothing for the equipment, he said.

MARYLAND: The Rodgers Forge community in Towson has long pushed to ease the crowding at its neighborhood elementary school. But if eliminating congestion means transferring their children to a new, $25 million school, few in this close-knit community of nearly 2,000 townhomes seem willing to make the change. The majority of parents want their children to remain at Rodgers Forge Elementary, where many of them can walk to school. They oppose any redistricting plan that would bus their children a few miles to West Towson Elementary, which is set to open in August on North Charles Street.
"Ours will always be a crowded school and that is a backdoor compliment to our neighborhood," said Janice Moore, president of the Rodgers Forge Community Association. "This is a viable, stable and desirable area. Everything is right about this community, including its school." Rather than "bounce kids around and fracture the school," she urged school officials to keep the neighborhood intact, regardless of capacity issues. Rodgers Forge Elementary, which dates to 1951, has long been the hub for the surrounding community, but its building serves nearly double its intended number and is surrounded by six portable classrooms. Fifth-graders go to class at nearby Dumbarton Middle.

While current Rodgers Forge Elementary fourth-graders will be able to stay at their home school regardless of the redistricting, keeping all neighborhood children there means the building would remain above its enrollment capacity of about 400, school officials said. State construction funding requires boundary options that take Rodgers Forge below capacity and ensure West Towson opens below its capacity of 451 students, officials said. "We looked first at keeping Rodgers Forge students all together, but that would put the school at 115 percent," said Pamela Carter, boundary specialist with the system's office of strategic planning. "For that reason, each option shows the school with a smaller enrollment and some of the children at West Towson."

Rodgers Forge Elementary "is the center of our neighborhood and brings the many homeowners together," she said. "My child lives a stone's throw away from Rodgers Forge Elementary, but, on most of the plans, would be bused to another school. Children sent to another school will miss out on the neighborhood feel that is the reason we bought our home here."

PENNSYLVANIA: Philadelphia and 20 other school districts in the area are eligible to use more than $460 million in special low-interest bonds to help pay for renovation and construction projects under federal stimulus spending. The funds would be restricted to projects that would increase energy efficiency, create or renovate space for preschool or kindergarten programs, or reduce class size in the lower grades. The money also could be used for projects that foster science, technology, and engineering, or that correct health and safety deficiencies.

Officials at the Philadelphia School District and several other districts said they were considering the program, which has an April 1 application deadline. Only districts with the highest tax and poverty rates and those with rapid population growth over the last five years can apply. Statewide, 110 districts are eligible. Philadelphia could use up to $147 million in bonds; the others would share $316 million. In late December, the Pennsylvania Department of Education issued guidelines for obtaining the bonds. The money must be spent within three years of being received. Roughly the same amount in low-interest bonds will also be available next school year; there will be a separate award process for those bonds.

A part of last year's stimulus act, the program, called Qualified School Construction Bonds, allows school districts to receive up to $11.2 billion nationwide in below-market-rate bonds. Districts would pay interest rates from zero to 1.5 percent, plus some costs. They would also have to repay the principal.
Michael Masch, chief financial officer for the Philadelphia district, said that the district has 320 buildings averaging 62 years old and that the district would not have trouble finding uses for the funds. "The problem is choosing among them and figuring out what is the most we can afford to do at any one time," he said. Masch said that the district typically would take out 30-year construction bonds, but that these bonds would have to be paid back in 15 years. "We will do what is the least expensive," he added. "This gives us more options."
The Norristown Area School District said it was considering the bonds to help underwrite replacing the high school's heating and air-conditioning systems and Stewart Middle School's roof and windows. The combined cost, said Chief Financial Officer Anne Marie Rohricht, would be more than $20 million. A typical bond for that kind of work would run the district about 4 percent over 20 years, she said, so "this is a unique opportunity to save a considerable amount of money."
In Delaware County's William Penn School District, a $12 million to $15 million renovation project at Ardmore Avenue Elementary School in Lansdowne has been under consideration for some time. "The timing for this is perfect," said the chief operating officer, Joseph Otto. Also, the Southeast Delco School District is exploring using the bonds to finance a portion of the proposed renovation of Academy Park High School, said Superintendent Stephen Butz. In Chester County's Great Valley School District, bonds could go to finance several small projects for a total of less than $5 million, including the renovation of the district administration building and the installation of solar panels at the middle school, said the business manager, Chuck Linderman. In both Delaware County's Upper Darby district and Montgomery County's Pottstown district, the bonds could be used for school renovation or construction projects that are under consideration if school boards there decided to go with them in the near future. "These bonds would be ideal for us," said Superintendent Lou DeVlieger, "should we decide to expand."

NATIONAL: The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) awarded more than $123 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants to support the construction of new scientific research facilities at 11 universities and one non-profit research organization. With ultimate research targets ranging from off-shore wind power and coral reef ecology to quantum physics and nanotechnology, the 12 projects will launch more than $250 million in new laboratory construction projects beginning early this year.

“These awards will create jobs by helping to fund 12 major, shovel-ready construction projects,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said. “These new, state-of-the-art facilities will help keep the United States at the forefront of scientific and technological innovation and will support economic growth.”

[The 12 construction project awards, the result of a competition announced by NIST last May, are listed, with details on each project.]

MINNESOTA: Minnesota's charter schools often open with a host of fire code violations. Inadequate fire alarm and sprinkler systems, improper exits, lack of firewall protection, and inadequate water supply are among problems fire code inspectors have found when they inspect just-opened charter schools. The problem, state officials say, is that the law doesn't require schools in leased space -- where charter schools generally are located -- to release building plans to state inspectors prior to signing leases and opening.

These problems emerged at a hearing being held on charter school facilities by a Senate subcommittee. The subcommittee has generally been concerned with charter schools' use of state lease-aid, which is used to help charter schools pay their rent. Legislators are concerned that the aid sometimes is being used, and abused, in tandem with expensive junk bonds to purchase buildings. That has fueled a largely unregulated charter school building boom. The concern is that the practice violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the law. A Star Tribune investigation found little state oversight of charter school construction programs and abuses of the lease-aid system. Subcommittee members hope to devise new legislation designed to tighten the oversight of charter school facilities, said subcommittee chairwoman Sen. Kathy Saltzman, DFL-Woodbury. Their proposals could be considered during the legislative session scheduled to start next month.

CHINA: Amid the wreckage of China’s massive earthquake last May, the sight of collapsed school buildings served as a powerful symbol of the depth of the tragedy. As architects and engineers ponder how to improve rural building safety, a new program is bringing together local people, young architects, and experienced designers to build a set of new schools that offer more than just safe construction. “This is a big historical opportunity to reconsider many things, like what is the role played by education in our society,” says Zhu Tao, an architect who is one of the organizers of the program, Re-tumu, which focuses on the design and construction of new schools in Gansu and Sichuan provinces. Inspired in part by Taiwan’s New School Movement, which began after a devastating earthquake there in 1999, Re-tumu envisions reconstruction as a cultural project. “It’s not just a hardware repair but a software update,” says Zhu.

When architects paid visits to affected villages in the months after the earthquake, they saw flimsy temporary buildings and unseemly conditions. “It was so hot inside one school that one girl passed out every 20 minutes,” says Zhu. To understand the needs of the communities for whom they were building, architects consulted with local residents, parents and children, while school principals and officials from the villages sat on juries that chose the designs of some of the new schools.

As one of its first initiatives, Re-tumu invited Japanese architect Shigeru Ban to design a temporary school in Hualin, Sichuan, using the same kind of paper-tube construction he pioneered in 1995 after an earthquake ruined much of Kobe, Japan. Ban’s school, which will be used for at least three years, was not cheap or easy to build. But it has raised the profile of earthquake rebuilding projects, provided experience for the Chinese and Japanese architects who volunteered to help with construction, and become a place of pride for the community. “If you’re a resident, all these temporary constructions, banfang, they’re always reminding you you’re living in a disaster zone,” says Tao. After Ban’s school opened, “the children were hanging gleefully on the columns like monkeys.”

Architects working on permanent schools are also making their designs sensitive to the local climate and community. For example, Zhu and Shuqing Cecilia Li of ZL Architecture designed an elementary school for Dangpu, using an elongated 3-story steel-framed building with ample sunlight and ventilation. Breaking with traditional school design, the architects punched a large opening on one end of the building to create an open-air assembly space and widened corridors to facilitate after-class activity.
For an elementary school in Lijiaping, the program brought in architect Yu Jia, while Liu Xiaodu of Urbanus was hired to design the Weizigou Elementary School. A competition to find young architects to design four additional schools ended up selecting Gong Weimin Studio from Shenzhen (to design Chengguan First Elementary School), Yu Liu and Lan Xia from Shenzhen (Dongyukou Elementary), Lu Wang of In+of Architecture from Beijing (Hananzhai Elementary), and Benmo Architecture from Ningbo (Liujiaping Elementary).
Set to be completed in May, the new schools still face many hurdles. Publicity has been scarce because the topic of post-earthquake school rebuilding is still taboo for even Guangzhou’s most progressive newspapers. Meanwhile, reliable charity sponsors have been hard to find, while organizers scramble to cope with bureaucracies, the possibility of corruption, and cost-cutting during construction. For Zhu, the program is not just a test of China’s young architects in disaster situations, but a chance to push the country’s nongovernmental organizations in new directions. “We’re trying hard to squeeze a space out of the rigid social structure. And we’re learning a lot by trying.”

ARIZONA: The Arizona School Facilities Board is working out the final details of supplying $5 million to rural districts to purchase solar systems. Twenty-one districts were chosen late last year, each with only a handful of buildings to split the money. The SFB sought to provide maximum value for the money, part of the state’s share of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. “We found that by targeting the smaller districts, we were able to help more districts,” said Kerry Campbell, spokeswoman for the SFB.

The board had $18 million with about $13 million going to energy efficiency programs and $5 million for renewable projects. So far the state has granted about $4 million for the projects, but has yet to finalize the procurement policy and whether there will be a statewide contract from which the districts can purchase the solar equipment. That decision should be made at the board’s meeting later this month, Campbell said. “We want to get the money out as soon as possible, and it really is going to depend on the procurement procedures,” she said. The final purchasing step would give districts three ways to purchase systems: through the state contract, by working with a local educational cooperative used in purchasing, or through their own request for proposal procedure.
SFB has encouraged districts to participate, targeting applicants based on size and the ability of a reasonably priced solar system to offset their utility bills. No district will receive more than $240,000, and none less than $32,000. The SFB grants are meant to cover about one-third of the solar system’s cost.

NATIONAL: The Senate’s top Republican taxwriter has introduced legislation that would block the stripping and selling of tax credits from three kinds of tax-credit bonds. At the same time, Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service attorneys are working to write stripping rules sought by muni market participants who contend they are needed to jump-start the programs. Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee, has introduced two bills that would extend programs for qualified zone academy bonds, qualified school construction bonds, and new clean renewable energy bonds. However, the Iowa Republican’s bills, which he introduced last month, also include provisions that would prevent the stripping of credits from the bonds. The stripping bans were included in the bills because Grassley is concerned the IRS would be unable to properly trace ownership of the strips and prevent abuse, an aide said yesterday. If passed, the legislation could stifle stripping before it has had a chance to begin.

Congress granted tax-credit bond issuers and investors the ability to strip credits in June 2008 as part of the farm bill, but market participants have been waiting for the Treasury to write rules that shine some light on a litany of questions. Treasury officials have said for months that while stripping guidance is a priority, the work has been bogged down by a number of ­complicated issues, including how to track the credits. Grassley’s legislation has some market participants scratching their heads, as stripping was touted as a promising way to expand the current paltry market for tax-credit bonds by making the bonds and tax credits marketable to a broader base of investors.

“Allowing stripping for QSCBs would be hugely beneficial to the program and ultimately to the schools,” Scott Minerd, chief investment officer at Guggenheim Partners LLC, the biggest purchaser of QSCBs, said. “Without stripping, there’s a limited appetite for these securities in the long run ... You’ve eliminated at least 85%-90% of all the buyers of bonds in the world, if not more,” he warned.
Guggenheim has purchased $1.2 billion of QSCBs, nearly half of the $2.5 billion that have been issued. The privately held financial services firm had planned by the end of last year to strip and sell the credits from bonds it purchased this fall from the Los Angeles Unified School District, with or without Treasury regulations. However, that attempt hit a wall when rating agencies refused to rate the stripped credits without the Treasury rules, Minerd said.

The viability of traditional tax-credit bonds also has come under question from lawmakers in the House, who last month approved a jobs bill that would allow state and local issuers of QZABs and QSCBs to receive direct Build America Bond-style payments from the Treasury instead of investors receiving tax credits.

In addition to the proposed ban on stripping for the three kinds of tax-credit bonds, one of Grassley’s bills, S. 2851, would permanently extend the QZAB and QSCB program and authorize an additional $700 million annually for QZABs. The $700 million would be indexed to inflation. Under the bill, QZABs and QSCBs also would no longer have to comply with the Davis-Bacon Fair Labor Act. QSCBs would not be granted any additional authority beyond the current $22 billion authorization. Grassley’s other bill, S. 2826, would authorize an additional $2.2 billion for CREBs.

COLORADO: The Denver Public School Board has approved plans for the development of photovoltaic (PV) solar energy projects on 16 school buildings throughout the school district. The projects are the result of more than two years of planning and coordination by Denver-based renewable energy developer Oak Leaf Energy Partners with the School District and the Denver Green Print Council. The projects will be owned and operated by MP2 Capital, a leading developer, financier and operator of solar projects throughout North America. MP2 will then sell the electricity produced to the district under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). The School Board’s approval will elevate Denver as a leader in school-based sustainability initiatives, both in Colorado and nationally. The systems will be designed and built by Boulder-based Namaste Solar.

The projects will be completed on several sites throughout the district. The locations were selected by the optimal solar and roof qualities of the schools. The 16 systems will total approximately 1.8 MW of capacity and generate approximately 44 million kWh of clean solar electricity over the course of the 20-year PPA. The systems are expected be completed by November 2010, with the first project coming on-line in March 2010.
In addition to providing clean electricity, the projects also include an extensive educational curriculum for the host schools. Created by Namaste Solar, and taught by local teachers, the program will concentrate on the science and economics of photovoltaic energy generation.

WISCONSIN: Lisa Voisin of the Robert W. Baird & Company financial advisors told the Rhinelander school district board that right now would be an excellent time to pass a referendum, from the financial aspect. “When you look at the tax-exempt bond market right now, which is what most school districts typically use for borrowing, current interest rates are 4.2 percent,” Voisin said. “They are at 30- to 40-year historic lows. Some analyses put it at a 60-year low. If you borrow today, with your district’s A-2 rating, you would pay 4.25 percent interest over a 20-year period.”

With the referendum scheduled for Feb. 16, Voisin said she felt confident making cost estimations based on the more conservative projection of 4.75 percent for tax-exempt bond borrowing. The second reason to pass a referendum right now, Voisin said, is to take advantage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus funds. “By the end of 2010, this opportunity will be gone,” she said. “The program started in 2009. In that year, 40 school districts took advantage of this program that allowed them to borrow funds at 0 percent interest rate. The second phase is this year.” Voisin outlined three programs available to districts under the ARRA that involve federal tax credits. Under the stimulus program, she said, lenders loan money at zero percent interest rate, qualifying them for a government tax break. Qualified School Construction Bonds (QSCBs) is one example of this type of program. “QSCBs may cover 35 percent or more of the cost of your referendum’s debt question of $13.7 million,” she said. Another program is Qualified Zone Academy Bonds (QZABs), also providing zero percent financing. The QZABs require a 10 percent match of funds through donations from businesses or organizations, as well as requiring 35 percent of the district’s students qualify for free and reduced lunch. Currently, the district is well above the 35-percent free-and-reduced lunch benchmark. The third stimulus opportunity is Build America Bonds (BABs), involving borrowing through taxable bonds that would be at a higher interest level – more like 6 percent than the market level of 4.25 percent for tax-exempt bonds – but 35 percent of the project would be eligible for direct payment from the federal government. “This brings down the cost of borrowing to 4.17 percent, lower than the current market rate,” she said. Voisin said the goal of a financing program for a passed referendum would be to “achieve the lowest total financing cost, minimize the levy impact to the taxpayers and manage the long-term debt issuance based on updated marketing information.”

NORTH CAROLINA: Plans to fund facility improvements at Moravian Falls Elementary and some other Wilkes County schools with zero interest bonds have so far been thwarted by unwillingness of banks to purchase the bonds. On July 24, the Wilkes Board of Education unanimously agreed to borrow up to $1.79 million in Qualified School Construction Bonds and $4 million in Quality Zone Academy Bonds. In these programs, banks provide zero interest loans for school facility projects and get tax credits from the federal government. Up to $5 million of the $5.79 million was earmarked for facility improvements at Moravian Falls Elementary School, said Dr. Steve Laws, Wilkes school superintendent. Laws said the school has disjointed facilities, lack of space in the cafeteria, gym and some classrooms, only paneling as walls between some classrooms and a "terribly inefficient" area for a media center.
Laws said in July that school officials also were interested in using some of the money to purchase the adjoining Crossfire (originally Moravian Falls) United Methodist Church property. He said this morning that the asking price of $250,000 for the property was "considerably higher than it is worth to us," so school officials weren't interested unless the price was dropped. Laws said the zero interest bonds would also fund vocational education facilities at North Wilkes and West Wilkes high schools and improvements at North Wilkesboro Elementary School. He said he remained optimistic obtaining this method of financing Wilkes school improvements in 2010.

In early August, the Wilkes school board received approval from Wilkes County commissioners to seek the $5.79 million in interest free bonds for school facility improvements. This approval is needed because county government would actually borrow the money. Zach Henderson, chairman of the county commissioners, said this support was based on Laws' assurance that county government wouldn't be responsible for paying back the bond debt A July 28 memo from Laws to Henderson stated, "The Board of Education will handle the debt service for the bonds through lottery revenue and does not seek the customary partnership with Wilkes County government for the building/renovation of school facilities with these particular funds." By late 2009, only one of the 69 eligible school districts in the state was able to get a bank to buy the zero percent interest rate bonds. Some lenders have said they would make the loan if they could add interest rates of up to 2.9 percent because the tax benefit for banks isn't as good as intended.

The qualified school construction bonds are available through the American Recovery Reinvestment Act and the Quality Zone Academy Bonds are part of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. When Gov. Bev Perdue signed legislation letting North Carolina schools use the interest free bonds for school construction, repair and renovation, she said the program would improve school facilities and create jobs. Ben Matthews, director of school support for North Carolina's Department of Public Instruction, estimated it would create 11,000 jobs.
Bloomberg News reported that only $2.3 billion of the $11 billion in bonds available this year nationally were sold by early December. North Carolina law prevents the state from issuing bonds directly, so they must be sold by individual counties. Some counties have low credit ratings, and some have been allotted such small amounts of money under the program that lenders aren't interested.

ARIZONA: Low housing values in the Gilbert area have caused a unique, and unfortunate, issue for the Higley Unified School District. Unless the economy picks up and housing values rise in the district’s boundaries, Higley won’t be able to use the remaining $71.5 million of a $120 million bond voters approved in November 2006. That money was approved for proposed capital improvements, including a plan to buy land for a third high school, build up to two more elementary schools, purchase additional school buses to phase out older buses, and replace the heating and cooling units at older elementary schools, said Tony Malaj, Higley’s director of support services. “(Losing this money) makes us have to reduce other types of programs, write grants or get outside funding,” Malaj said. “It makes us get more creative in how we exist and maintain ourselves. We have to seek individual donors and energy grants.”

Higley is in its current situation because the housing values went down so much that the district’s total assessed valuation declined. And since a school district can’t exceed 10 percent of its secondary assessed valuation in total outstanding debt, Higley can’t sell more bonds because it would pass that threshold, said Kent DeYoung, Higley’s chief financial officer.
School districts have six years to sell the bonds, so Higley has until November 2012 to sell as much as the voters approved as long as it’s within its debt limit. Beyond that date, Higley would have to seek voter approval for a new bond, DeYoung said. Besides housing values going down, which was “fairly uncommon” for the area before the down economy, Higley is also hit with a smaller boundary and not a lot of commercial properties within those boundaries, DeYoung said. “A larger district may have a higher assessed valuation, or one with more commercial properties,” he said.

NORTH CAROLINA: Guilford County Schools officials are getting a good jump on more than $400 million in new school construction that voters approved in 2008. Work on projects — six new schools and 13 renovations and additions — is beginning to pick up with planning, design and land acquisition. Voters approved selling $457 million in bonds to pay for the projects. That work includes money for the already-rebuilt Eastern Guilford High School, destroyed by arson in 2006.

Finding property has proven difficult not just in the southeast area of the county but also in the west as the school board plans for the county’s newest high school. The district hopes to alleviate some of the crowding at Northwest and Southwest high schools with the opening of a new high school in western Greensboro, near Piedmont Triad International Airport. The airport-area high school project includes the purchase of property for the high school as well as a new middle school, but no money has been allocated for the middle school’s construction. The trouble officials are running into for these schools is the location. That part of the county is a highly desirable site for industrial development, so land values are high. “Land acquisition is certainly one of the more challenging aspects of this,” LaRowe said. “It’s difficult to locate a 100-acre tract of land that will meet the needs of a high school and middle school program.”

Officials are optimistic that, with much of the preliminary work done in 2009, 2010 will be the year construction gets under way for many of these projects. School board member Garth Hebert said, “I think we have done so much groundwork in 2009, that 2010 will be a steamroller.”

OHIO: Barber Elementary School's new building is the 17th project completed in the Akron district's nearly $800 million school construction program. The state is paying for 59 percent of the basic cost of the projects, with a voter-approved city income tax hike covering the rest. So far, Akron has spent $242 million out of about $417 million that has been budgeted. The remaining money has not yet been raised through the sale of bonds.

The joint board of city and school officials overseeing the program recently received a progress report on the overall project. Here's where it stands now: 17 completed schools (community learning centers); seven schools in construction; the new Buchtel High School (combined with Perkins Middle School) is in the design phase; McEbright elementary school is in the construction bid process; Rankin elementary school has been approved for new construction, but the project is on hold while the district evaluates the school's enrollment.

Districtwide, enrollment has dropped since 2001. At that time, an outside firm projected total enrollment would be 30,511 for the 2010-2011 school year, only slightly lower than in 2001. Akron's actual enrollment in October was 23,324, however, and now is projected to be 20,703 by the 2015-2016 school year, when the whole construction project is scheduled for completion. The state is basing its share of the total project on that projected enrollment. The district already has taken steps to adjust to new enrollment by closing two middle schools and three elementary schools. Akron's declining enrollment is common among Ohio's large central cities.

Next fall, the Inventors Hall of Fame School . . . Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Learning will move into its new building on South Broadway. Also opening in the fall will be the newly renovated East High School-Goodyear Middle School, and new buildings for Leggett and Portage Path elementary schools.

TEXAS: For several local school districts, the spring semester could mean saving thousands of dollars in interest on construction bonds as the Texas Permanent School Fund Bond Guarantee Program is reinstated, according to the Texas Education Agency. The agency announced while districts were on Christmas break that it was reinstating the program— frozen since March— to allow school districts to benefit from lower interest rates. The program has backed more than $83 billion in school construction bonds since 1983. The Internal Revenue Service informed the agency that school bonds could be guaranteed up to 500 percent of the $23 billion Permanent School Fund.
"This IRS ruling increases our capacity to back school district bonds by hundreds of millions of dollars," Commissioner of Education Robert Scott said in a news release. "It will help school districts to build new buildings for generations to come. It will also help school districts keep tax rates down because this will save them money."

The Texas Education Agency closed the Bond Guarantee Program on March 11 when the Permanent School Fund decreased as the stock market declined, reducing the agency's ability to back bonds. Big Sandy, Tyler, Joaquin and Mount Vernon were among at least 20 Texas school districts whose applications were deferred when the program was suspended. The suspension meant a higher interest rate on those bonds, causing taxpayers to owe more money, state board of education member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, said in December 2008 when the board announced the effective suspension date. The agency plans to reopen the program as early as late January. School districts must apply to obtain the lower interest rates. The application will return when the program reopens, according to the Texas Education Agency. When a bond is backed, it is given the equivalent of the highest rating available, AAA. The higher the bond rating, the better interest rate a district gets when it sells its bonds. Lower interest rates can save school districts thousands or millions of dollars, according to the Texas Education Agency.

WISCONSIN: The Manitowoc School District will work with Bray Associates Architects of Sheboygan on renovations to Franklin Elementary, district building and grounds Director Jeff Schulz said. The new Franklin gymnasium and other renovations represent the largest part of the cost in the package of renovations and upgrades the school board approved in November. Current estimates price the Franklin remodeling and additions at nearly $4 million, energy-efficiency upgrades at $680,000 and safety and security upgrades throughout the district at almost $1 million.

Loans will fund the cost of all projects. About $2 million will come as interest-free bonds made available by the federal stimulus, while the remainder will be low-interest promissory notes. Without the loans, security equipment would have been installed one school at a time over a number of years, he said. Schulz said he hopes installing the equipment in all schools at once will bring down the cost. Even at this point, he said, the district is "catching up a little" with trends in installing security equipment in schools. The third phase, Schulz said, will be the energy-efficiency upgrades — new lighting at Monroe Elementary and most schools' gyms, new digital heating and cooling controls and some new boilers. The district will apply for rebates for the energy projects through the state's Focus on Energy program, which provides incentives for taking energy-efficient measures.

The district received $2.01 million in interest-free Qualified School Construction Bonds through the federal stimulus at the beginning of December, business services director Ken Mischler said at the Dec. 8 School Board meeting. The board had previously approved the borrowing of the bonds, made available by the federal stimulus, and what likely will be another $3.5 million to $3.6 million in low-interest loans for the projects. Schulz said some Franklin improvements were essential and would have had to come out of the district's budget if it didn't borrow money. He said the loan availability allowed some of the projects, like the security upgrades, to move higher on the district's priority list.